This unique and innovative text provides a forum for the presentation and discussion of narrative inquiry approaches to research in music education. Each example is accompanied by a critical commentary that situates the work in the field.

Margaret S. Barrett and Sandra L. Stauffer We live in a congenial moment for stories (Pinnegar & Daynes, 2007, p. 30), a time in which narrative has taken up a place in the landscape of inquiry in the social sciences. This renewed interest in storying and stories as both process and product (as eld text and research text) of inquiry may be attributed to various methodological and conceptual turns, including the linguistic and cultural, that have taken place in the humanities and social sciences over the past decades. The purpose of this book is to explore the narrative turn in music education, to - amine the uses of narrative inquiry for music education, and to cultivate ground for narrative inquiry to seed and ourish alongside other methodological approaches in music education. In a discipline whose early research strength was founded on an alignment with thesocialsciences,particularlythepsychometrictradition,oneofthekeychallenges for those embarking on narrative inquiry in music education is to ensure that its use is more than that of a musical ornament, an elaboration on the established themes of psychometric inquiry, those of measurement and certainty. We suggest that narrative inquiry is more than a turn (as noun), a melodic embellishment that is played around a given note (Encarta World English Dictionary, 2007, n. p. ); it is more than elaborationon a position, the adding of extra notes to make a melody more beautiful or interesting.

The first collection of narrative inquiry examples in the field of music education Accompanies each example by a critical commentary that situates the work in the field Presents meta-reflective commentaries from key theorists in Music and Social Science Presents an innovative view of narrative inquiry is resonant work

Inhalt
I.- Narrative Inquiry: From Story to Method.- Narrative Inquiry in Music Education: Toward ResonantWork.- II.- Prelude: Framing and Re-framing the Narrative Possibilities for Music Education.- Storying the Musical Lifeworld: Illumination Through Narrative Case Study.- Challenges in Storying a Musical Lifeworld A Commentary.- The Importance of Being Henry.- The Interview as Narrative A Commentary.- Filtered Through the Lenses of Self: Experiences of Two Preservice Music Teachers.- Layering Analytic Lenses: Considerations for Assessing the Narrative Text in Music Education A Commentary.- Learning from the Learners: A Cooperating Teacher's Story.- Nora's Story and the Mirror of Music Teacher Excellence A Commentary.- Everybody Should Be Heard; Everybody Has Got a Story to Tell, or a Song to Sing.- Giving Voice to the Voiceless: Empowerment Through Music A Commentary.- G.- Narrative Inquiry as Reflection on Pedagogy - A Commentary.- Stories from the Front.- Narrative Inquiryand Indelible Impressions A Commentary.- III.- Troubling Certainty: Narrative Possibilities for Music Education.- Charting Narrative Territory.- Postlude.